1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, control method thereof, and storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a printing apparatus continuously executes a plurality of print jobs, the time taken for reception processing generally varies between the respective print jobs depending on the data size of a print job received via a network. When the printing apparatus starts reception processing for the first print job of a large data size and then starts reception processing for the second print job of a small data size, the jobs may be executed in an order different from the one in which the reception processes have started. More specifically, if the reception processing for the second print job that has started later is completed before the completion of the reception processing for the first print job that has started first, the execution of the second print job may start before the first print job. In this manner, depending on the data size of a received print job, the printing apparatus does not always execute print jobs in an order in which the user input them to the printing apparatus.
However, it is known that the user of a production printing apparatus or the like has the following request. For example, for a print job which is executed by dividing it into a plurality of jobs in order to print a form, DM, or the like, it is desirable for the user to execute print jobs in an order in which he input them to the printing apparatus (that is, an external apparatus transmitted them to the printing apparatus). This is because the user wants to handle, as a series of products, a plurality of printed materials obtained as a result of executing a plurality of such print jobs.
As a technique for meeting this user demand, there is proposed a print order guarantee technique of, when the printing apparatus accepts a plurality of print jobs, guaranteeing the execution of them in an order in which the print jobs were accepted. For example, when the printing apparatus accepts a print job (to be referred to as a “print order guarantee job” hereinafter) for which the execution of print order guarantee is designated, it inhibits interruption by another job for which the execution of print order guarantee is not designated, and executes only the print order guarantee job. If the printing apparatus newly accepts a print order guarantee job in a predetermined period, it inhibits interruption by a job other than the print order guarantee job in a predetermined period further from that time. The printing apparatus repeats this operation, handles a plurality of accepted print order guarantee jobs as a job group, and executes the plurality of jobs included in the job group in the acceptance order. In this way, the printing apparatus implements the print order guarantee.
As described above, when executing the print order guarantee, the printing apparatus executes, in the acceptance order, a plurality of print order guarantee jobs accepted in a predetermined period. In this case, the printing apparatus inhibits the execution of a print job other than the print order guarantee jobs till the completion of the series of print order guarantee jobs. However, if the execution of another print job is inhibited without exception, the start of execution of another execution-inhibited job may be delayed more than necessary. Further, when print order guarantee jobs each having a relatively small data size and short execution time are executed at a given time interval, even if an idle time during which no job is executed is generated, no other job can be executed by using the idle time while the print order guarantee continues. In this case, the operation of the printing apparatus stops intermittently, greatly decreasing the productivity.
It is therefore desirable to execute another print job by interruption as much as possible during the execution of print order guarantee for a plurality of print jobs. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-150732 discloses a method of, when a highest-priority job is different from a job in progress, temporarily stopping the job in progress and starting the execution of the highest-priority job. By using this method, for example, it is conceivable to execute a higher-priority print job by interruption during the execution of print order guarantee.
However, the conventional technique as described above has the following problems. When print jobs are executed by the above-described print order guarantee, if another print job is executed by interruption, this may influence the output order of a plurality of printed materials output by the print order guarantee. For example, if a printed material output by another print job is mixed in a plurality of printed materials output by the print order guarantee, the printed materials may not be output to the discharge destination in an output order intended by the user. Also, when the execution of a print job in progress is stopped, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-150732, the productivity may decrease owing to the time taken to switch the print job.